Fellowship

Information for Applicants

Previous recipients

Deadline for receipt of completed applications: on or before April 13, 2008

1. History

The TIGC was founded in 1991 and a research fellowship was initiated for the year 1993-94 with unrestricted funding from DuPont then Sanofi-Aventis and Bristol-Myers Squibb. To date, 13 worthy candidates have been supported by the TIGC Fellowship.

The purpose of the TIGC Fellowship is to provide financial support for highly qualified, promising new investigators-in-training to allow them to pursue further basic, clinical, and/or epidemiologic research training in the area of thromboembolism at a Canadian center.

3. Fellowship Award

1. Number of TIGC Fellowship Awards: One fellowship award is provided each academic year if there are suitable, outstanding applicants.
2. Amount of the Award: Funding comparable to other agencies.
3. Term of Support: The Fellowship is normally awarded for one year (from July 1 to June 30 the following year), to benefit the greatest number of trainees and on the assumption that the candidate should be able to obtain alternate funding for preceding or succeeding year(s) of fellowship training.
4. Renewal: The Fellowship may, under unusual circumstances, be renewed but only if there are no acceptable first-time applicants, AND if the incumbent is exceptionally meritorious and has provided evidence of substantial progress in achieving his/her research objectives, AND if this individual has applied for other peer-reviewed fellowship support for the coming year and has been unsuccessful.
5. Deferral: The TIGC fellowship award cannot be deferred.

4. Candidate Eligibility

1. Citizenship: Canadian citizen or permanent resident status in Canada.
2. Prior Education: Completed the MD degree (or equivalent), and have obtained fellowship from the Royal College of Physicians & Surgeons of Canada (or equivalent) or from the Canadian College of Family Physicians or have completed a Pharm. D. degree. Persons who already hold a faculty position (or who obtain a faculty position during the award year) are not eligible.
3. Type of Research: Eligible research may be in basic, clinical, and/or epidemiologic sciences in an area related to thromboembolism. Clinical, non-research training will not be considered.
4. Location of Fellowship: The applicant must be enrolled full-time in a research training program at a center of excellence in the field of thrombosis at a Canadian university. Under exceptional circumstances, eligible candidates may apply to pursue their training in a foreign institution, as long as justification is provided that similar training is not available in Canada.
5. Concomitant Higher Degree: Applicants may be enrolled in a higher degree program (M.Sc. or Ph.D.) during the tenure of the Fellowship as long as they demonstrate that they have sufficient time to also conduct substantive research.
6. Supervisor: Must be an established researcher who has agreed to be the fellow’s supervisor and who accepts the conditions of the fellowship as outlined below.
7. Other Application(s): The applicant is also encouraged to apply to other agencies for fellowship support (Medical Research Council, Heart and Stroke Foundation, subspecialty or disease-specific fellowships, etc.) and to provide evidence of this application.

Submission of an application implies acceptance of the following conditions by both the applicant and his/her supervisor:

1. It is expected that the principal focus of the successful candidate will be to further his/her experiences in basic, clinical, and/or epidemiologic research by spending the overwhelming majority of their activity in meeting the objectives of the research proposal as outlined in the application. Candidates must devote a minimum of 80% of their time to research-related activities. Non-research related clinical work or teaching may be done concurrently with the research fellowship but may not exceed the equivalent of one full day/week.
2. The fellowship award may not be combined with or supplement another fellowship award.
3. The administration of the award will be through a university department or hospital research department and not sent to the successful candidate directly. The University or Hospital will then issue the funds to the award recipients according to their own procedures and payment schedules.
4. Letter of agreement: On acceptance of the TIGC Fellowship, the successful candidate and his/her supervisor will sign a letter of agreement and submit this to the chair of the Fellowship Subcommittee within 2 months of the offer.
5. Acknowledgment: Any publication, thesis, or formal presentation resulting from the research fellowship must acknowledge the support of the TIGC and a copy of all publications resulting from the fellowship must be sent to the Fellowship Subcommittee chair.
6. Final report: A brief summary of the fellowship year shall be submitted to the chair, Fellowship Subcommittee, within 3 months of the end of the fellowship year.
7. The fellow may be invited to present a summary of his/her research activities at the TIGC annual general meeting.

The components of the application include:

1. An application form including demographics of the applicant and supervisor, whether an additional degree (master's or Ph.D.) is being pursued during the fellowship period, information about other sources of funding applied for including their dates of notification, name and address of the university or hospital financial officer who will administer the award, and the signature of the applicant.

2. A letter from the applicant (2 page maximum) with the following headings:

i. Background preparation for the research fellowship
ii. List of specific objectives for the research fellowship
iii. Plans for the research year based on the specific objectives
iv. Future career plans

3. Summary of the research proposal (2 page maximum). If the research proposal requires additional funds, the summary should describe the source of this funding (obtained or applied for) and should include a brief discussion of alternatives if funding is not successful.

4. A copy of the applicant's current CV.

5. The applicant is encouraged to also apply to at least one alternative agency for fellowship support (Medical Research Council, Heart and Stroke Foundation, subspecialty fellowships, etc.). If this is done, the face sheet and summary of the alternative fellowship applications(s) should be included in the TIGC Fellowship application..

6. A copy of the current CV of the supervisor.

7. A letter of support from the proposed research supervisor outlining the strengths and weaknesses of the candidate, the research facilities and resources available to the candidate as well as the proportion of time the candidate will spend on research, course work, clinical duties, and teaching. This letter is to be sent independently of the rest of the application.

7.1 Introduction: A formal selection process will review each of the submissions using a ranking system that recognizes:

a) the quality and potential of the candidate, including demonstration of a sincere commitment to a career in investigative or other aspects of academic medicine related to thromboembolic disease;
b) the quality of the research environment and the supervisor; and
c) the quality and potential importance of the proposed project, including its relevance to the mandate of the TIGC.

7.2 Rating System  A 10-point rating system will be used by the reviewers:

7.3 External Reviews: The Fellowship Subcommittee may, if necessary, request formal, written external reviews from people who have knowledge of the candidate or his/her supervisor or who have expertise in the area of proposed research.

7.4 Conflicts of Interest: It is possible that members of the Fellowship Subcommittee may have potential conflicts of interest in the review of applicants and in the selection of successful fellowship candidates. A set of guidelines has been developed to prevent actual or perceived, direct or indirect conflicts of interests in the selection process.

Deadline for receipt of completed applications: on or before April 13, 2008

Send completed application packages to:

TIGC Fellowship Subcommittee
Sharon O'Doherty
3-1750 The Queensway
Suite #1286
Etobicoke, ON
M9C 5H5

THROMBOSIS INTEREST GROUP OF CANADA RESEARCH FELLOWSHIP

APPLICATION CHECKLIST

Please check that each of the items below are completed. An incomplete application package cannot be accepted.

(Download application as an Adobe Acrobat .pdf file)
(Download application as a Microsoft Word file)

• Page 1: Application Form
• Page 2: Applicant's letter (2 page maximum)
• Page 4: Summary of research proposal (2 page maximum)
• Copy of applicant's current Curriculum Vitae
• Evidence of application for alternate source(s) of fellowship funding, if any (copy of face sheet and summary of applications)
• Copy of supervisor's current Curriculum Vitae
• An original and 10 copies of the complete application package above must reach the Chair, TIGC Fellowship Subcommittee by April 13, 2008.
• Letter from supervisor (to be sent separately)